Harry and the Game of Life
by BrokenBlackCat
Summary: The Dursley had always told Harry that he's a freak and he believed them. So being the only one to see a test box suddenly pop up was something he thought to be normal for a freak like him…apparently, it's not normal. Gamer!Harry. Slightly Apathetic!Harry.


Summary: The Dursley had always told Harry that he's a freak and he believed them. So being the only one to see a test box suddenly pop up was something he thought to be normal for a freak like him…apparently, it's not normal. Gamer!Harry. Slightly Apathetic!Harry.

 _ **Appraisal**_

For his tenth birthday, Harry Potter was a little apathetic. He had realized that accepting his situation with the Dursley family was relieving and comforting. This caused him to be indifferent about his surroundings but that was not much of a problem. He didn't have friends and didn't find an appeal to getting one now so he didn't have much to worry and he only needed to survive living with his relatives until he was old enough to live on his own.

However…

Emerald eyes blinked in confusion at seeing a rather odd white text box popping up as soon as he had fixed his cupboard. There was no mistaking the words that was on the box.

 _Currently, you have 50 skill points. The skill [Appraisal LV1] can be acquired by spending 50 skill point. Do you want to acquire it? [YES] / [NO]._

Harry had no idea what was it all about but he thought that it had something to do with him being a freak. He nodded to himself in confirmation and took the 'popping text box' as another thing to write in his notes about his freakiness. He glanced back to the box again and tried to touch it with his two small hands.

'Well, it seems to be solid,' he observed distractedly, wondering how he should really feel about touching the box and moved his left hand to word "NO" and pressed it. 'I think that I have to answer this so I'm going to refuse. One thing I learned about my freakiness is that I should not question the why and I should just ignore it.'

The white box disappeared but then appeared again after a couple of seconds. There was one difference though. This time, the "NO" was blackened.

 _Currently, you have 50 skill points. The skill [Appraisal LV1] can be acquired by spending 50 skill point. Do you want to acquire it? [YES] /_ _ **[NO]**_ _._

The black-haired boy stared blankly at the box and tried to press the button again. It did not work and the box remained still. Brooding over the situation for a moment, he sighed in resignation, "Guess that means I have to pick "YES", huh?"

He pressed the other word and watched as another box replaced the first one.

 _[Appraisal LV1] was acquired. Remaining skill point is 0._

He waited for something to happen before sighing again when nothing did. 'What does appraisal even mean anyway?' he thought casually and made a mental note to go to the library after his choirs. He would rather ignore the situation but he'd rather be prepared if this new freakiness would get him in trouble with his relatives.

He had already known some things about his freakiness and had decided counter actions to avoid angering his relatives. His way of teleporting from one place to another was caused by his desire to get away from his cousin so he had decided to not run away anymore to avoid activating it. His way of exploding windows were caused by his emotions so he decided to control his emotions. For most part, they worked and his relatives ignored him.

However, some of his freakiness still surfaced sometimes and it made his relatives furious at him. One time, he was forbidden from eating for a week and he's rather not suffer like that again.

He needed to get to know more about this "appraisal".

…

Harry found himself in the old library that afternoon, reading a think book or what people would call a dictionary.

His relatives had been irritated by his presence in the house that his aunt had ordered him to stay outside until the day was over. Someone important was apparently coming and the Dursley wanted to keep him from meeting this person. He shrugged uncaringly and had walked towards the library.

He wanted to make most of his time without his relatives.

"So let's see…," he said, his fingers lightly touching the first page of the dictionary. "Appraisal starts with "a", I think. Now, where is it?"

He searched for the word and smiled brightly, finding it easily in the A category. He pointed at the word, "Aha! Here it is. Hmm… Appraisal means an assessment or estimation of the worth, value, or quality of a person or thing while appraise is its verb form and it assess the value of something…"

A brief silence took place as the young boy tried to understand what he had read. He place a hand under his chin and thought about this carefully, not wanting to misunderstand the information. 'Does this mean I can appraise something and it would give information about it?' he assumed in confusion and frowned deeply. 'This is confusing. Why do I even have this? What am I going to do with this?'

He stared at the thick book and groaned, "What? So like if I decided to appraise this book, it will happen?"

Suddenly, a box appeared at his words to his surprise but the contents of the book made him speechless.

 _A thick book._

"Seriously?"

…

Well, apparently, that was really the "appraisal" of the book. At the very least, it wasn't like the other things he had tried to appraise.

He felt slightly disappointed that the appraisal turned out to be a useless skill. His other freakiness was more convenient and most of them were free. However, he was relieved that it wouldn't cause him trouble with his relatives.

There was also one upside.

Gleeful green eyes flashed in amusement at the box that appeared when he appraised his relatives but the owner tried to keep his face blank.

 _A human pig._  
 _A human walrus._  
 _A human giraffe._

Appraisal had now become his favorite freakiness. He wondered crudely what the appraisal for his Aunt Marge was and a sadistic guilty pleasure came to him.

 _ **Skills & Stats**_

The black-haired boy had thought nothing about the popping box again since nothing major really changed. He took seeing box as something normal.

 _Skill proficiency reached. Acquired skill [Cooking LV1]._

Slightly pausing in his cooking, Harry tightened his grip on the frying pan and wondered if his irritation for gaining a skill by just doing something was just.

He nodded firmly. He had no idea what the skill points were meant for but if he knew that skills would be achieved like this, he wouldn't have wasted them for a useless skill like appraisal, no matter how much he loved the skill.

'Still, cooking, huh?' he thought attentively and got an idea. He chanted the word "cooking" in his head countlessly and focused on his frying pan. He had tried this on the appraisal skill and had appraised something mentally without saying the word so he should be able to do the same with this skill.

Blinking fast at the smoke that suddenly appeared, he grinned in achievement when the food he was trying to cook had immediately been done.

"Yes, a useful skill!" he almost shouted happily and tasted the food. He immediately spat the food and groaned gloomily. "Yuck! Ugh, I guessed that's another useless skill again."

He sighed heavily, "What use will this skill be if the taste is bad?"

…

Harry blinked at another box that appeared suddenly when he was gardening.

 _Skill proficiency reached. Acquired skill [Gardening LV1]._

"Another one?" he sighed, feeling like he would be having a useless skill like cooking again. "This must be like cooking. It would make me finish the work fast but the garden would be a disaster."

 _Skill proficiency reached. Acquired skill [Prediction LV1].  
Stat proficiency reached. INT+1._

"H-huh?" the boy almost fell down at that. This was becoming strange even for him. He sighed heavily for the nth time and thought idly, 'I wonder if I could stay in the library for a couple of days. I really need to know something…anything about this situation of mine.'

'Now, what the heck does stat mean or INT?'

 _ **Leveling**_

It took the green-eyed boy a week to finally become used with the random stats and skills. He had mostly theorized that they were his skills and data so they wouldn't do anything bad for him. He decided that gaining more of them was a right thing to do.

He had already gained the [Running LV1], [Enduring LV1], [Fright Resistance LV1], [Sense LV1], [Evasion LV1] and other skills when he encountered Dudley and his friends last time and the skills helped him to endure the pain and escape at the right moment. He had even increased many stats like DEX, AGI, VIT and LUK despite not knowing what they were about.

Now, this made him think that there was a possibility that his skills would grow.

'I mean, the number 1 in the skills made sense like that,' he thought to himself, thanking the heavens that no one paid attention to him anymore. He didn't need any distractions for he was going to test something. 'If that was the case, I guess cleaning or cooking will be easy to grow… I mean, I'm always doing them.'

 _Skill proficiency reached. Skill [Prediction LV1] has become [Prediction LV2]._

"Eh? That works, too?" he thought aloud in surprise. He knew that he was always thinking of what would happen but he didn't think that it was a lot that this skill would grow first than the others.

Harry shook his head, not wanting to agree at that and grinned excitedly, "Now, let's try the other skills!"

…

"Well, look who's here," an unfamiliar boy appeared in front of the small boy and made him blink in confusion under his thick glasses. "It's the freak!"

Harry frowned bemusedly. He had gotten used to not hearing the word since he had started seeing boxes but now, he felt unusual anger at this person for calling him a freak. It was weird because he didn't mind much before.

"I'm not a freak," he retorted firmly, shocking not only the other boy but himself. He clenched his knuckles, 'Why did I say that?'

The taller boy smirked haughtily, "Oh, is the little freak fighting back?"

A slight growl escaped the black-haired boy before he could stop it and he realized that he really did hate it when someone called him a freak even if it was the truth.

 _Skill proficiency reached. Acquired skill [Anger LV1]._

'Calm down,' he closed his eyes and breathed in and out, trying to calm himself. He assessed the situation with his appraisal skill, which was now LV2.

 _[Human LV1 Ronald Grayson]_

His green eyes thought about it carefully before nodding to himself, 'He's just LV1 so I should be fine. I really can't believe that I'm doing this but really, I'm too angry to care for the moment.'

He glared lightly at the other boy and moved. He was fast, too fast for the other boy. He was behind the other within seconds and had kicked the other with all his might, straight in between the other legs, too. The other immediately dropped his legs and cringed painfully.

Maybe, Harry should be guilty about that?

 _Skill proficiency reached. Skill [Running LV2] has become [Running LV3].  
Skill proficiency reached. Acquired skill [Kicking LV1]._

'Oh well,' the smaller boy thought to himself, not feeling one bit guilty. Actually, he felt rather refreshed. He grinned happily. 'That was fun!'

However, he blinked in confusion when multiple boxes had appeared.

 _Experience points has reached a certain degree. Individual, Wizard LV1 has become LV2.  
Every basic stats rose.  
Level Up Bonus: Skill Proficiency was acquired.  
Skill proficiency reached. Skill [Appraisal LV2] has become [Appraisal LV3].  
Skill proficiency reached. Skill [Running LV3] has become [Running LV4].  
Skill proficiency reached. Skill [Enduring LV2] has become [Enduring LV3].  
Skill proficiency reached. Skill [Kicking LV1] has become [Kicking LV2].  
Skill proficiency reached. Skill [Prediction LV3] has become [Prediction LV4].  
Skill proficiency reached. Acquired skill [Magic Theory LV1].  
Accumulate your stat points? [YES] / [No]_

"…what?"

 _ **Status**_

"Right, not going to ask," he decided resolutely and just pressed the "YES" button. He watched with tired eyes as a new box appeared.

 _Wizard LV2 Harry Potter  
Status  
HP: 15/15  
SP: 200/200  
STR: 5+  
AGI: 10+  
VIT: 4+  
INT: 12+  
DEX: 4+  
LUK: 15+  
Stat Points: 3  
Title  
[Freak] [Boy-Who-Lived] [Living Horcrux] [Chosen One] [Gamer]_

"…seriously? What the hell?"

Harry promptly wondered if it was too late for a refund. He knew that he should have ignored the first box that appeared to him.

* * *

A/N: Right… So this is my first time writing a multiple-chapter for HP fandom so I'm not sure if it's okay but I tried my best! Anyway, I wanted to write a Gamer AU since I've read good fics like that and I thought of doing this type of fic in the HP fandom. Hope you guys like it!


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